May 9 (Bloomberg) -- A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, owner of the
world’s largest container line, aims to win more African port
contracts after a group to which it belongs was selected to
build and run a container terminal in Ivory Coast.

Maersk has operations in more than 40 African nations and
generates about 10 percent of its sales in and around the
continent. Besides its shipping business, the Copenhagen-based
company has interests in nine ports in eight West African
countries and supplies oil- and gas-related services.

“We are working closely with governments on the ports,”
which play a key role in driving the continent’s growth, Lars
Reno Jakobsen, Maersk’s senior vice president for Africa, said
in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Cape Town.
“There is an increasing awareness that infrastructure
investments need to at least double to keep track with the
current economic development. We are very willing to be a
partner.”

Maersk joined with Bollore SA and Bouygues SA to win the
450 million-euro ($591 million) contract for the second
container terminal in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital,
according to a March 25 e-mail from Bollore. The terminal will
start operating in 2016, it said.

Maersk is targeting annual sales growth of at least 10
percent from Africa in coming years. Shipments of agricultural
products, including timber and fruit, are rising as the
continent diversifies its trade away from raw materials,
Jakobsen said.

Manufactured Products

“We are starting to see some value-add in Africa, which is
very good for the economy and for employment,” he said. “The
next wave of export development could go from raw materials into
agricultural products and consumer manufactured goods.”

Natural resources accounted for an average 14 percent of
sub-Saharan Africa’s gross domestic product between 2000 and
2011, according to the World Bank. Ivory Coast is the world’s
biggest cocoa producer.

Maersk operates ports through its APM Terminals unit, which
has locations in 68 countries, the subsidiary’s website showed.